Sunday, August 10, 2008

As highlighted by the recent Salmonella outbreak, fruits and vegetables may harbor a wide range of undesirable substances. Non-organic produce may have a plethora of chemicals applied to it throughout its life. Organic produce may be cost prohibitive or simply not available. Even organic produce may have been handled by dozens of dirty hands on its way to your home.

Since most fruits and veggies travel long distances, the producers use tricks such as waxes to ensure it will arrive with little damage. This wax is not necessarily very good to eat, and if you only rinse with water, it will trap all the chemicals underneath it.

Most soaps and cleaners will remove harmful materials, but they themselves may be toxic and at the very least can leave a bad taste behind. My family has used 'Veggie Wash' to clean all our produce for several years. It is made only of natural ingredients: corn, coconut, citrus oils, sodium citrate, and grapefruit seed extract. The label claims that it is laboratory tested and proven to remove unwanted residues.

I cannot really personally vouch for the effectiveness of the product. It certainly removes the wax coating from supermarket fruit. As for dangerous chemicals or microbes, I have not run any scientific tests. Also, most pathogens, like Salmonella, cannot really be washed off. I'm sure this is better than nothing, but sometimes the only way to get rid of microorganisms is to cook them. The thing that I appreciate is the lack of heavy soapy aftertaste. There is only a slight citrus taste, if anything at all.